you know, to look at that woman, that sister who's lost her sister, who is a teacher and to know the principal has parents, probably, and siblings and you know, we can't forget the adults as well who lost their lives, who gave their lives in protection of the children. >> as we look back inside, getting ready for this, and outside, lining up outside and getting ready for the service inside, steve, your thoughts about, you know, dealing with this and is also that, i know you see senator joe lieberman in line and obviously, he was out here on fox news sunday talking about dealing with this and also, as you mentioned, something we talked about, hollywood, video games and other aspects to what nina talks about, the broad, perhaps, commission approach to a bigger problem. >> yeah, i think if you -- if

you -- you know, basically there's going to be this broad national discussion, i hope it's broader rather than more narrow, but what struck me from the words from robbie parker yesterday as he remembered his daughter who died in the shooting was that he took the time to remember and think about the family of the shooter, which i just found, you know, as a of a seven-year-old, five-year-old and a two-year-old, to see him take that time in that moment as he's taking and remembering his own daughter and remember the family of the shooter and say, i'm not mad, i forgive them, i'm thinking about them at this time was just an incredibly powerful moment, and makes him, i think, a very strong man. >> and i think that's a remarkable example of grace in the world that a father would think of that. if i could say one word about the policy, i think the national commission is the way to go to take it out of the

moment. and i think of the -- when i mentioned the other day there had been three elements are the shooter, the weapon, and the environment. and all three should be given equal place in any inquiry, meaning the availability of guns, the question of the video game and the movie, hollywood industry, which desensitizes and makes almost a game of the violence, i wouldn't be surprised if we learned that the shooter was playing games, you know, on his own in his autistic world and many of which are about massacre, mowing down people and the third is, of course, the psychology of the shooter. and interestingly, each of them impinges on a right, a fundamental right, gun control on the second, the entertainment industry, free speech, the first. and the idea of committing a

person, the fifth. he so, these are really rounding issues, very deep in our liberal, sort of libertarian culture, but i think if you deal with anything you have to deal with all three at once. >> and i should point out you're looking live at the auditorium at the newtown high school. about 900 people fit and an overflow in the gym of 1300 and staff and students of sandy hook elementary are actually in the crowd and they're wearing green and white ribbons. the town's and the school's colors with a small angel in the middle of them. we're told that this service will be delayed a bit because the president is still meeting with these family members and classrooms at the high school. and he's taking his time with these families in individual

classrooms. we don't have a start time yet. it could be possibly at the bottom of the hour. we don't know as of yet. they'll give us the best cues they can, but he is meeting with these-- with these families one by one and also meeting with first responders. and picking up on what charles said. >> yeah, i mean, i was just going to point out when you talk about, you know, heroes and human moments and the stories that we've heard about these teachers over the course of the last 24 hours. >> the principal and-- >> the principal. >> the psychiatrist. >> and losing their lives and trying to protect the kids and then there were teachers who hid in closets with children and got them to draw to calm them down and one teacher told them she loved them, fearful that they would hear that instead of the gunfire. i mean, these were really heroes in the best, best sense

of the word. >> yeah, i mean, those are the stories, getting into the rooms, looking them up. some teachers putting them through windows so they could get out in time, kirsten, thinking to get them, you know, really what they'd been trained to do in the sense of emergency and remember that this place is just, an idyllic kind of place. >> town, yeah, i mean, my brother is a teacher and i have so much respect for teacher and they love tear kids so much and i don't think, you know, this is the ultimate sacrifice that we saw what the teachers are doing. i think sometimes people don't always appreciate just how much they really do love these kids and really give their lives to them every single day and then in this way, in the ultimate way. and by throwing themselves in front of this gunman, they delayed, you know, enough for the first responders to get there because the first responders said there was so much ammo left over, that he

basically, the shooter killed himself because the first responders showed up and i guess he didn't want them to be able to kill him or capture him. so, we don't even know how much worse the carnage would have been, had the principal, had the teacher not, you know, delayed him. >> like we've said, steve, we don't know so much about this complete story and so much more could potentially come out about this. >> yeah, i suspect we'll learn a lot more about what the teachers did and what the administrators did and it's the case that teachers take this personally, for the vast majority of teachers, going to school every day is not just showing up at a job. they take this personally. they're personally invested in the lives of their students and when their students don't do well, the teachers go home and they worry about it at night and i think what you've seen and kirsten suggests sort of the ultimate manifestation of that level of caring and in this kind of an event, that the teachers do, you know, these kind of -- they take

this kind of care on a daily ba sis and you just don't see it in this way. >> we're again awaiting this prayer vigil and this service and remarks of president obama who is meeting with family members and expected to take the stage at the newtown high school, in a bit he'll look to obviously, comfort this town, still trying to comprehend and deal with this tragedy. chief white house correspondent ed henry is live outside the school. and ed, the latest there? >> reporter: well, bret, what we're hearing is taking the president some time is each individual families in the classroom, what you're seeing is the auditorium where the president and other dignitaries will speak at the prayer vigil. inside there are classrooms set up for each family to get private time with the president and obviously a grim task with any commander-in-chief and they have to deal with this when families lost loved ones in

afghanistan and now it's right here at home and as you noted earlier many times the last couple of hours, it's happened too many times over the president's first term in office. i will note though that people in this community are getting a lot of strength from all corners of the country, all corners of the globe. i spoke to a red cross volunteer who came from greensboro, north carolina, says there are at least a hundred volunteers from the red cross who come from across america, handing out blankets to the people waiting out here in the freezing cold to get into the vigil and handing out stuffed animals and appear to be some sort of dogs or something for the kids so they have something to bring a smile to their faces and they're waiting for this difficult evening to continue forward. also, a gentleman who has been kind enough to let us use his property for live shots here, rob and susan, they go to united methodist church here and told us that their bishop said today they had gotten messages, this united

methodist church from zimbabwe and they're getting prayers from all around the world and they're drawing strength. and the people waiting to get in here. there's no parking and cars lined up on either side of me and a highway to my right just past the high school and one woman who just walked by and i asked a woman where she'd parked her car and she said exit 10 off the highway on the other side of the high school and i said how far is that? two miles, she was walking with other people, she was walking two miles in the rain just to be at this prayer vigil. it gives you an idea of the depth of the pain people are feeling, but the support they're willing to give one another tonight, bret. >> yeah, pretty amazing. and do we know anything about the speech as of yet, the president's speech? >> all we -- all we know about the president's speech is that some of his advertisers have said he does not want to talk about gun control and some of the issues that have come out in terms of public policies because he thinks that given

everything laid out about the community it's not the time or place to do it, but as you know, there are some, like new york city mayor michael bloomberg, saying every time there's a tragedy like this, tucson, aurora and now is not the time to talk about it. he believes it's the time to talk about it. and you mentioned senator joe lieberman he talked to reporters and talked about the commission you mentioned he's now pushing, not just with gun control, but take a look at violent video games and violence from hollywood, what kind of role that may play, in terms of affecting children and what not. so, senator lieberman who is retiring may obviously be somebody who could lead a commission like that, we'll see if the president reaches out to him on that. we're told that the president will not talk about the public policy issues, he wants this to be about prayer and remembrance, bret. >> as we're looking live there, we see the table in front of the podium there and i think that that is-- those are candles, probably 26

candles there on the stage to represent the 26 people killed inside the elementary school, sandy hook elementary. as it pulls back and some of the members of the local clergy and religious folks who may be speaking at this ceremony, you've covered this president for a number of years now. and as we've said, he's done a number of these speaking events, but what about meeting with victims's families and meeting with families that have lost loved ones. your personal knowledge nhow he deals with those situations and what you know about that. >> sure, in talking to some of his advisors say this is something he does often, when he i mention brave men and women who died in afghanistan and died previously in iraq and he meets with the families

and does it privately. i remember, you remember covering president bush as well and we don't hear about it, they do it behind closed doors and he don't have television cameras and you know how painful the veterans that pay the ultimate price go through, their families. now it's happening at home. in talking to some of his advisors, he says what we saw on friday, with the president i was sitting in the briefing room and after four years of covering him you've never seen him, despite the previous tragedy, break down the way he did on friday and struggle at one point, you could hear a pin drop in the white house briefing room and as the president was struggling to keep his composure for 7, 8, 10 seconds, gives you an idea how difficult it is for him, as he mentioned, not just as a president, but as a parent. and i will note that on friday when he mentioned that this weekend, he and the first lady would hug their own children a little bit tighter, before the president came over here to talk about these children who so tragically lost their

lives, he spent some time in washington. his daughter sasha had a recital, a dance recital rehearsal back in washington and he realizes he's got his two daughters he was thinking about, parents or folks who, you know, have nieces and nephews are all thinking about them this weekend. the president included, bret. >> okay. ed. those candles in fact were to represent the 20 children and six adults killed in sandy hook elementary school there on the stage, getting ready for this vigil and prayer service. ed henry, thank you very much and again, for more on how you can help the community of newtown, go to foxnews.com and there on the front page you can see the highlighted area in red, the sandy hook support fund, among that in there, you can see the american red cross and other groups, but on the front page foxnews.com, a way that you can help. we're waiting this prayer service to begin and the

president is meeting with the victim's families. and you can see all of it here on fox news channel, special coverage from newtown, connecticut. ♪ the financial obstacles military families face, we understan at usaa, we know military life is different. we've been there. that's why every bit of financial advice we offer is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. [ laughs ] dad! dad! [ applause ] ♪ [ male announcer ] life brings obstacles. usaa brings advice. call or visit us online. we're ready to help.

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>> looking live there in the auditorium of newtown high school, people getting ready

there. in fact, 900 in that auditorium, 1300 in the overflow gym. now, you can see some folks there giving each other a hug with a little baby. and they're getting ready, but it could be some time before the president finishes meeting with some of the families in the classrooms. one by one, we're told, meeting with the families in different classrooms, in that high school, having individual time with the victims family members, as well as the first responders. this ceremony, prayer vigil, interfaith ceremony will start when he enters the room and then we'll bring that all to you live here on fox news channel as well as fox broadcast. we're learning more about the victims of this tragedy, putting faces and personalities to each of the 26 names, 27 including the mother of the shooter, six children--

six adults, 20 children. we're meeting the families of these victims. horrible tragedy ripping, rippling out, impacting the entire newtown and of course the entire nation. molly line is live in newtown, what else do we know about the victims tonight? >> right, there was that horrible anticipation the first hours after the shooting as this entire community was waiting to find out who they would be and what their names would be. we knew there would be 20 children and we're just beginning to get a look at some of their faces and find out about what they liked to do and enjoyed in the short lives they had lived. jessi jessica just six-year-old, brunette, a beautiful smile. her mother a teacher in a nearby school. >> and daniel, his father is musician, his mother loved him very, very much, as a first grader, he loved to play

soccer. these small little details about kids just beginning their lives and things they liked to do, are really the things that kids all across america like to do. bret. >> bret: molly, we've seen the outpouring of support from all over the country, but how is the community reacting internally? >> this is a community that all has been struck in so many different ways, the initial fear, the pulling together, in the moments that this was happening, everyone you speakha town and the story the moment they heard this was happening and the moments leading up to it, the waiting for the names and everything afterwards. we have seen packed church services all across this community, outpouring so full and so big that people have been filled to the brim, pouring out of these churches outside, and when you ask anyone, why are you here? and even before they knew the names of the victims.

they felt a pull to be here in the community. they understand it's a long process as far as rebuilding, that the impact struck in so many different ways. not just the people that lost their children or lost a loved one, a mother, a sister, but those whose children survived this massacre, there's no joy in that, instead they say a little bit of relief, relief to have found their child alive, but at the same time a bittersweet one, understanding so many others are suffering so greatly and a lot of unanswered questions as to what's next and how to rebuild and how to move forward, not just the laying to rest of those that have passed, but helping those that survive this to move on. bret. >> bret: molly, quickly, you talk about church services today. anyone talk about this service tonight and what this it means for them? >> you know, the people in this community know this is a small town and everyone knows

each other and they've seen that pulling together, but having the president arrive here tonight, gives this community an accepts sense of this is. it's not just newtown, it's all of the country thinking about what happened here, bret. >> bret: molly line, live in newtown. again, as you look live in the auditorium, newtown high school, we're waiting president obama's remarks for the prayer service and as soon as he walks in. and we'll have that. and 26 people killed at sandy hook elementary school. 20 of them children, six and seven years old. our special coverage of the tragedy in connecticut continues after this. ♪ ...so as you can see, geico's customer satisfaction is at 97%.

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♪ >> welcome back, as we await this prayer vigil for the victims of the school shooting. we're getting new information about the investigation. atf investigators are now confirming what we brought to you from the associated press earlier, that nancy lanza, the gunman's mother did visit one, probably more local gun ranges and there's more to what we brought you earlier. mike tobin is in newtown with that. what's the new information coming in on that, mike? >> so the new information is also that adam lanza, the gunman had visited a gun range somewhere in the he local area and no confirmation that adam lanza actually fired a gun. no confirmation that nancy took him to the the gun range, just na adam lanza had been to

a gun range in the local area and nancy lanza had been to a gun range. and stories that nancy lanza would take adam out to the gun range, this is part of the investigation from the bureau of alcohol, tobacco firearms and more than 80 licensed firearm facilities in a ten mile radius, bret. >> bret: mike, she was, from on the ground reports, a gun enthusiast, that those guns were legal and registered and we assume from authorities what they've said, that adam took those guns and he actually had four weapons with him? >> he had four weapons and quite an arsenal with him. the state police out here say that hundreds of rounds of ammunition was fired and many more ready to go. the primary weapon used in this was a bush master, ar-15 assault rifle and that was coupled with 30 round clips he was using at the time

according to state police and not only that carrying with him a couple of side arms, and .9 millimeter and the other a glock .10 millimeter and one of those side arms was use today kill the gunman himself when the first responders arrived on the scene and a fourth weapon, we're not sure if it was used in the attacks because according to the state police, he was out in the car carried out in the school, a shotgun in the car. all of these weapons are important to the investigation and state police say they will trace these back to the work bench on which they were made and trace every time these guns were sold and every time they were fired to try to get a time line, as far as what led up to this horrific shooting, bret. >> bret: one would think you would have to have training to shoot that many rounds, one would think? >> you would, and it seems that adam lanza, from what you hear as far as his attention to detail, and working with computers and different things

he did with lan, local area network, that he had a good mind for detail, a good mind for particulars. now, as far as what he knew about weapons, you would really just have to speculate. again shall the best information we have right now, at some point he was at a gun range, that coming from a spokesman for-- a spokeswoman from the atf and that's really as far as we know. but we know that he had good knowledge ever working things and computers and what not, bret. >> bret: all right, tobin, following the investigation, mike, thank you very much. and as you look live there in the auditorium, the consoling and hugging going on as president obama becomes consoler in chief tonight. and in a few minutes we're told this prayer service will get underway, this town, newtown, connecticut. the faculty members and some students are actually wearing green and white ribbons, the school, that's their school colors in sandy hook, elementary, there you see them, town colors, in the

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(applause) >> you're looking live there, newtown high school, the guys walking in there, first responders, standing ovation for some of the newtown police, the firemen, walking into the auditorium there, before the prayer service starts. you can see some of them, wiping the forehead. imagine some of the first responders, getting to that scene, having to secure it, deal with the shock, deal with the shooter still on the loose not knowing the situation and seeing the grisly scene in sandy hook elementary school. we're awaiting president obama to enter that auditorium. as we do, it's just minutes away, let's bring back our panel, senior writer for the weekly standard, steven hayes, kirsten powers, and syndicated columnist charles krauthammer,

contributors all. we're talking, charles, what this means tonight, what the president perhaps needs to do, what he may want to do tonight before this crowd. >> i think his job, really, is to let the people know, have suffered and continued to suffer that the nation suffers with them of the that's his role, that's his job. it's not him as president, he speaks on behalf of the station, as you said, so they understand how much the grief is shared and i mean, it's -- there's never any ultimate consolation, but there's a modicum of it, and the grief that we share ap so many others, in fact, a great nation is mourning at the same time. >> the families had filed in and into our designated reserved seats earlier, nina, and really, meeting with them had a special private time, but the message is really to the whole community and to the

nation tonight. >> and he was delayed, as we saw, in beating with those families. i'm sure it must have been incredibly difficult and he's had to do it in the shootings, we talked about earlier, in the arizona case and recently in the aurora, colorado theater shooting, but, yeah, that's a part of his job as our consoler in chief tonight is to personally console the families and to personally tell them that we, as a nation, grieve with them, as well as stepping to the podium. >> bret: one of the of the things these shootings have done is focus everyone's attention, kirsten, so many of them, as you go through the list and you see how many there have been. we forget, also the other shootings. there was a shooter on the loose here in d.c. that dominated everything. we were consumed in washington d.c. with going to a gas station, taking your kids out to the home depot. >> yes. >> bret: and you think about communities that are gripped

with fear after one of these events. >> well, i think as you're saying, he's not just speaking to this crowd here, he's speaking to the nation, a nation who is mourning and a nation who is frightened and people who have young children and nieces and nephews, look, they see this and they think this could happen to my children. i mean, what's to say there's not a copy cat or something like that, and i think that the president has to -- is going to be doing a lot of reassuring as well. >> we're looking live at the auditorium at newtown high school, about 900 people inside that auditorium, about 1300 people in an overflow area that has a live feed. there are other people outside. we're told the place is packed and obviously, a lot of family members there to see the president, to listen to him. there's a long lineup here and we're going to pause now so that some of our fox stations around the country could join

us in our coverage. a somber day in newtown, connecticut as president obama and the nation join the people of that community in mourning. good evening from washington, i'm bret baier. the service in newtown, just about to get started, remembering the 26 people gunned down in that school friday morning, most of them children. we're told that before the vigil, the president met with family members as well as first responders. this acumenical will have song before the president speaks and the president is the primary ech we'll hear tonight. this auditorium filled with family members, first responders. let's listen this as the piano music starts before the president walks in.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> as we wait for the president to arrive. let's bring in our panel. senior writer for the weekly standard, steven hayes, kirsten powers, nina easton and charles krauthammer. and steven, we talked about what the president wants to do tonight. >> i think his main message is to communicate to the people across the country that we're altogether in this. that we're with the people in newtown, that we're thinking about you, we're praying alongside you. he really does have to be the consoler in chief.

while it does seem odd to say it this early because the pain is so raw and so fresh, it's inevitable that this service will probably be the first step in what will be a long and incredibly difficult recovery process and the president's job in some ways is to begin that process with words of healing along with leading clergymen, clergy folks with him tonight. >> bret: charles, we've heard from ed henry that this will not be a policy speech, that this will be a consoling speech, this will be a uniting speech. we heard a lot on the sunday shows, about policy projections going forward, but not tonight. >> not tonight, but i do think that this event is likely to be a watershed, i mean, it's hard to predict these things because we're all caught up in the emotion, but the frequency of these attacks and finally, the nature of this one, in the same way that 9/11 woke us up

to terrorism after years, decades of being attacked because of the sheer magnitude, this one, i think, will make a magnitude because of the sheer innocence of the victims. in arizona the president in the speech talked about rising to a higher level of civil discourse and the vehicle he used to make that point was the nine-year-old girl who died in that attack. she would have wanted us to conduct ourselves in a better way. and it was in that case was only a single child. here it is essentially, you know, a whole classroom full of utterly innocent change and in the language, men, women and children, nothing special about the innocence-- in some way all the victims are innocent, but suddenly transcendently, it's about children. i think that may make the difference and i think the best course is the one that

lieberman suggested not rash action and not business as usual, but a commission that will look at this, bring in studies and bring in social scientists and have conclusions the way as 9/11. >> bret: we'll continue with the panel in a moment, but ed henry standing outside the school. ed, i want to check in with you. >> good to see you, bret. as you know, what has been a slight delay to the start of this program, the president was going through the grim task of greeting each family of the 26 victims in different classrooms set out on the high school behind me, trying to spend some personal time with each of them, an as the panel has been saying, to start the grieving process, start the healing process as they move forward here. i will note it is very chilly out here, it's been getting chillier as the night wears on and yet, there have been a lot of people lined up outside and i now see some people leaving behind me we believe could not get in because you said, it's already at capacity in that

auditorium. one woman just in the last five or ten minutes walked by and she was still headed in, she didn't realize it was already full and she was with a friend and i asked them how long it took them to get here because the cars are lined up. there's no more parking spaces near this high school and the two women said they walked one hour in the rain, in the cold, just to be here, just to reach out to the fellow members of this community. so, it gives you an idea of the depth of the pain that people are feeling, but also, the depth with which they're reaching out to try to help one another through this crisis, bret. >> bret: thank you, on the stage 26 candles in glasses in front of the podium there. 26 candles representing the 26 people killed inside sandy hook elementary school. 20 of them children, ages six and seven years old. nina easten, fortune magazine. >> i think to remember it's not even the largest mass

murder at a school, virginia tech was, but this is the -- we hope, as charles said, a tipping point because when it involves small children, six and seven year olds, whose bodies were riddled with bullets, ranging from three to eight-- three to 11 wounds per child, it's so horrific that it should be treated as a moment just like 9/11 was, we should have a crisis commission to look at this. when you look at these past killings, these mass killings, both from schools and outside, there's a couple of things that stand out for being in common. one is that there were warning signs and it often involved somebody who was emotionally unstable and people knew about it and secondly, it involved semi automatic weapons and raises the death toll and makes it a mass murder as opposed to a murder. >> kirsten. >> we hope it's a watershed

moments, we focus on the moments and move on and the people who are most entrenched are the people that argue no, we must have semi automatic weapons or you can't do anything to limit video games. you have these people who have self-interest in it and they tend to dominate. what makes this one, as charles was saying, they were innocent, but they were helpless. i think that's one of the major things you often hear people saying, well, if the person had been armed they could have defended themselves. well, these were the most helpless people in the world these little children who wouldn't know, maybe they knew to run away at best, but you know, who really looked to adults to help them. if this isn't a watershed moment then we probably never will have one so i really hope that we'll see something come of this. >> bret: it may also be a watershed moment, steve, on the mental illness side of the coin. we haven't talked a lot about that as a nation. but some people today are

talking about that a lot more than they ever have. >> well, if we do have that kind of broad commission take a look at this and say, look, normally i'm skeptical of these kinds of commissions coming out of washington, they're an excuse not to get something done rather than to have a serious conversation about important issues, but i think in this case we could have that kind of conversation potentially, through a commission, but it would have to include those kinds of issues, i mean, we've seen as we've discussed a little bit earlier, again and again and again, signs and warnings repeatedly again and again, people, parents who have cried out and said that they want assistance, that they want help and unable to get it. that has to be part of this discussion, particularly if we learn more about adam lanza and the problems that he may have had. >> charles? >> i think if you put lieberman and rudy guiliani in charge, you might get a commission that actually does something and everything has to be on the table, all the three elements. i mean, for 30 years ever

mentally ill, not over there, but because of the homeless majority of which are mentally ill, they're not destitute and we leave them to die in the cold with their rights on. and of course i've been talking in the the wind all of these years, but there's a change in our attitude with commitment and abuse of that in the 50's, but there's got to be looking at that as well as the other elements. as i said it's going to impinge on the first amendment, going to impinge on the second, going to impinge on the fifth. that's a lot of impinging, but our country might be ready for that how to deal with a mass killings in an open society. >> bret: we've been just given under two minute warning and president obama and the official start of this prayer service in newtown, connecticut. this is the newtown high school. this is where we will be seeing the president speak for the nation, remembering the 26

people killed, shot and killed in sandy hook elementary school. 27 killed, including the mother of the shooter. 28 the shooter killed himself. ed henry is outside. ed? >> reporter: bret, we're talking to more people who again, unfortunately, can't get in because, you know, it's just at capacity. but while they're disappointed, they understand the situation and supposed just spoke to, from the sikh community, not here, boston a long drive away and one woman from that we talked to, said there's a connection, the sikh temple. and they wanted to be here and explained to us just a moment ago, getting teary-eyed talking about how she and her family wanted to be here for this community. so exactly what you're talking about, people who have seen

enough of these go by, standing up and saying they want to stand together and figure this out. >> bret: you've been there now for the day and just encapsulate some of the emotion in just talking to people out there? >> reporter: the biggest thing i've seen, i've been stunned and actually haven't seen a lot of people and they're just walking by so i don't want to overstate it, but i don't see a lot of people crying or screaming out in pain. obviously, the families have gone through this over the last 24 hours so the people in this community look determined, look like they're out here in the cold because they want to be here for their fellow citizens and when i've talked to them, they've said things like i knew a teacher who was killed. and another gentleman said he knew the principal who we've learned about who was so heroic and put herself in the line of fire to save other lives and that's what i'm seeing tonight. >> bret: ed henry, thank you. the president has just entered the room. president obama, at newtown high school, where this prayer

service to remember the victims of the newtown, connecticut school shooting. let's listen in. >> on behalf of the newtown interfaith clergy association, i welcome all of you. we needed this. we needed to be together here in this room, in the gymnasium, outside the doors of this school in living rooms around the world. we needed to be together, to show that we are together and unit united. we gather in such a moment of heart break for all of us here

in newtown. we gather especially mindful of family and friends and neighbors among us who have lost loved ones by an act of unfathomable violence and destruction. we gather to grieve together to care for one another, to pray and embrace, to weep and to remember and to declare in our many voices that these darkest days of our community shall not be the final world heard from us. we will sigh in our sorrows, but we will also care for one another with our love and our compassion. in those early hours of this crisis it became clear to we clergy and faith leaders here in newtown that initial, an

initial community response would be needed, that we would need to come together and so, we asked our first select woman and our superintendent if it might be possible for us clergy to invite the community to gather here at newtown high school to continue and to begin and to continue what will be for many a long journey through grief and loss. we are not here to ignore our differences or to diminish the core beliefs which define our many difference in traditions, but to offer our love, care and prayers for our families and our community. we wanted to offer our voices in the form of words from our sacred texts and prayers from the depths of our being, but also to have time for us to be together in silence. and that is what we will do.

we will have a time for sharing and prayer and also a time for silence in between so that all of us can pray as we wish and think about what it is that is most important to us. now, there's a reason why all of the clergy are sitting down there and not up here. and we hope you don't get tired of seeing us have the long walk up to this podium, but we wanted to be -- to have a symbolic gesture that we ourselves are with you and among you in these coming days. that we are all in this together. we want you to know that our care for this community extends beyond the walls of our various houses of worship and the people within them.

we are here for all of newtown. that means that you who are of st. rose catholic church, in the midst of your tremendous grief there is a jewish rabbi with a tora in hand ready to speak words of comfort and do whatever he can to uphold you in the coming days. and at temple israel you have a service of a japanese american minister ready to pray with you and with songs from john wesley. >> and conversation with uccars know that we have muslim brothers and sisters ready to offer prayers of compassion and pentecostals ready to pray with episcopalians and luthren ministries offering grace in jesus christ to others to

receive comfort and support from those of no faith. you see, now more than ever, we need each other for we are all in this together. that's why we even have our politicians sit down there as well. a sign and symbol and reminder to all of us that we are in this together. so now, let us come together. let us pray. let us listen and let us seek comfort of our various faiths, drawing from words and praye prayers. fear not for i am with you. be not dismayed for i am your god. i will strengthen you. i will uphold you with my victorious hand. god is with us. ove unites us.

god's purpose steadies us. god's spirit comforts us. let be our god forever and ever, amen.

>> i offer you this prayer from my heart to your heart, on behalf of all of your children, all of your loved ones. the hebrew memorial prayer. please rise. ♪

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